Multimedia

Narratives

Site Information

Encyclopedia - Q-Ships

Introduced towards the
close of 1914 by the British and French - and later deployed by the Italian
and Russians navies - Q-Ships were deployed as an initially although
decreasingly successful anti-submarine weapon. Alternatively referred
to as Special Service Ships or Mystery Ships, the purpose of Q-Ships was
straightforward: to trap enemy (usually German) submarines.

Sponsored Links

Invariably comprised of
small freighters or old trawlers they were loaded with hidden guns in a
collapsible deck structure. In practice U-boats would hail Q-Ships
flying (in the case of the Royal Navy) the merchant red ensign and, in the period
before the implementation of Germany's policy of unrestricted submarine
warfare in 1917, a so-called "panic party" would apparently abandon the
Q-Ship prior to the usual German policy of approaching the enemy vessel so
as to sink it with the minimum depletion of ammunition.

At this stage the use of
torpedoes to sink relatively small vessels was officially frowned upon.

Thus with the U-boat
effectively lured towards the apparently abandoned vessel the Q-Ship would
run up the white ensign and the deck
structure would be collapsed by the remaining ship's crew revealing a series
of up to four manned guns, which would immediately open fire.

Initially successful the
Q-Ship ploy resulted in the sinking of some 11 enemy U-boats by the British
and French. As the war progressed production of Q-Ships notably
increased so that by the war's close the British alone deployed 366.
However the Germans quickly developed a certain caution in approaching small
enemy vessels, wary of decoys.

Torpedoes were increasingly
used to sink Q-Ships at longer range; and with the introduction of
unrestricted submarine warfare the crews of Q-Ships were not given time to
abandon ship before being fired upon. The British lost 61 Q-Ships in
total. By 1917 the effectiveness of Q-Ship deployment was minimal and
the overall endeavour could not be termed a success.